Difference between User Acquisition & Demand Generation

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Difference between User Acquisition & Demand Generation

Performance marketing (paid search, display and paid social) is a challenging and interesting space with heavy industry jargon. Similar to customer vs consumer, the latter being a person who buys a product in your category/vertical but doesn’t buy from your company, like a customer would.

I see many people mix up and use the terms user acquisition & demand generation interchangeably. I don’t feel they mean the same thing.

So what is the key difference between the two terms?

Demand Generation: Sits at the top of the purchase funnel covering awareness and considerationSimilar to consumers, these people don’t buy from you (not yet anyways). Consumers might buy from you competitor(s) or you might have to show these people why they need your product. This is especially true if you’re creating a whole new category for your industry. This is what the iPod, tablets, Dropbox and even the selfie stick have all done. There was no (or very little) demand for this product before and in a few short years (9 for the selfie stick) you’ve people who can’t live without these product.

User Acquisition: Sits at the bottom of the purchase funnel covering purchase(s) and advocacyLike customers, these people already use your product or service.User acquisition falls under purchase and advocacy for the purchase funnel. Customers could be new or long-term users of your product, but they buy from you none the less. Your job is to up/cross sell other products from your company and create a long-term customer for your brand. The work isn’t done once someone has bought from you, you’ve to work twice as hard to keep them as a customer.

What do you think… am I off base about user acquisition & demand generation?

Working in the performance marketing space for 8 of the last 10 years has been amazing. I’ve been able to use many tools and services to do my job better (and faster). Maintaining quality should always been […]